“Thou art my hiding-place; Thou shalt preserve me from trouble; Thou
shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.
“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go:
I will guide thee with mine eye.”—Ps. xxxii. 7, 8.
WELL, indeed, may the Psalmist say, “Blessed is he whose transgression is
forgiven,” for every blessing flows into the soul as the consequence of
divine forgiveness. The word in the Hebrew rendered “Blessed” is in the
plural number, to show that there is not one blessing only, but
multiplied blessings and multiplied mercies, all springing from this one
source, the forgiveness of sin. When David wrote these words he felt the
truth of them. He spoke of a gift which he had himself experienced. He
had found mercy, so he proclaimed its richness. We know how grievously
he fell in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah, and we remember Nathan’s
visit. It was after that visit that, according to the general belief,
this Psalm was written. He had struggled with the agonies of unforgiven
sin, till at length the message was delivered to him by the prophet, “The
Lord, also, hath put away thy sin.” {5} No wonder, then, that he poured
out his heart in this hymn of thanksgiving, commencing with the words,
“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”
But it is not merely a Psalm of thanksgiving, for according to the title
it was a Maschil, a Psalm giving instruction. When David was pleading
for mercy in Psalm li., he said that when he had found forgiveness
himself, he would make it known for the good of others, “Then will I
teach transgressors Thy ways.” {6} So now, having been forgiven, he
wrote this Psalm of instruction for others.
“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”
These were the words with which David commenced his Psalm, and in these
words he said that to which every forgiven soul will most heartily add,
“Amen.”
What was the peculiar character of that blessedness? We learn from
verses 3 and 4 the awful misery of sin unrepented and unforgiven. We
find how David’s tears were dried up by the burning heat of a guilty
conscience, and how the dreadful burden weighed day and night upon his
soul. Then in the next verse we are taught the secret of the great
transition from misery to peace. We find how he made up his mind to make
no further efforts to conceal his guilt. He resolved to confess it
before God, and no longer attempt to hide it from man. The result was a
complete, assured, and most merciful forgiveness. “Thou forgavest,” he
said, “the iniquity of my sin.” He was assured of the gift, but what was
the unspeakable blessedness to which, when forgiven, he was admitted?
This we learn from the words of our text in which we find the peaceful
intercourse of the forgiven soul with God. It is that peaceful
intercourse which constitutes the real test of forgiveness, Christ died,
the just for the unjust, to bring us to God: so those who are made
partakers of that atoning work are actually brought to God and made what
the Psalmist calls “a people near unto Him.” {7} So it was in the case
of David. There was nothing to keep him any longer at a distance, and in
the full peace of complete reconciliation he enjoyed the unspeakable
privilege of communion with God. The account of this communion is given
us in the verses of our text, in the first of which we have the language
of the forgiven sinner to God, in the second the reply from God Himself.